Are these supposed to be bronze underneath? Or is this a fake coin? Are Antoninius coins part bronze and part silver? THIS LOOKS SILVER PLATED forum ancient coins shows this coin- and many Otacilia coins as common online forgeries.
It looks like its silver plated copper or bronze. Did they do that for official Antoninius coins? doesn't it look soapy? but not cast . struck fake? I thought I was buying a denarius but I didn't see that it was Antoninus. Are they supposed to be like this?
By this time the silver content was fairly low and it isn't rare to have some copper show through on ancients after being buried so long. And the reverse has a weak strike.
I don't just mean show through. I buffed the side because it looks like a modern forgery on forumancientcoins fake reports ( but I wasn't sure if it was a die match for them) Was it a mostly bronze coin with silver on top back then?
I've owned many of her to tell it's real. And this period of Rome has more silver in them, they weren't "silvered" yet.
This coin is fine. If you can’t tell that this coin is authentic yourself or trust others when you ask... you should always be buying from sellers you can trust.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billon_(alloy) the alloy varies, but coins at this time usually (there are always exceptions) only had around 30-40% silver, the rest of the alloy was mainly copper-- circa 60%
@Mat has a good eye and is very knowledgable. I trust his opinion among several others here. I usually do a lot of homework by using the CoinTalk Search in the upper right corner, acsearch.com, wildwinds.com, cng.com, forumancientcoins, wikipedia (quick history), fake reports, look up the terms describing the coin, research the seller, metallurgy, dates, etc. etc. BEFORE I buy. It gives me an acceptable level of confidence. I will also private message folks that are familiar or experts before I pull the trigger. I like to KNOW the Seller AND/OR KNOW the coin. It keeps you from running around with you hair on fire.
The surface appearance of billon coins can range from silver to bronze, depending on how they were minted, the percentage of silver, and the amount of wear. Even low silver percentage billon coins can look silver on the outside, through the minting process of surface enrichment the Romans used to disguise the fact their silver coins were debased. [It’s up to you, but you really would save yourself a lot of angst about fakes by only shopping from known reputable dealers.]
@Titojurdi very fake. Buy from dealers you know you can trust! Welcome. I hope you find the right coins and stick around.
